hitting on and hitting back
by Tsuru Maiden
Summary: Fives times Toby hits on Happy and five times Happy hits (just hits, not hit on, she insists) back. Quintis. Drabblish One-shot.


**Author's notes: I need some Quintis fluff after the Season 2 finale ;-; Drabblish series set in Season 1 before they officially got together. Hope readers enjoy and do leave a review!.**

 **(I love Quintis for how imperfect it is. For how Toby, who never seemed one to settle down, loves her so damn much even though he keeps screwing up. For how Happy is unwilling to take the plunge because he matters that much to her. For how even after so many gaps and holes they did their best to make it in the end).**

* * *

1.

The first time Toby makes a move on her, he's drunk. In his defense, the host practically forced the cup into his hands, and wouldn't it be rude if he left it filled to the brim until the end of the party?

His mind is a mess and he is slurring as he speaks. But he can still vaguely remember wisps and flashes of the events - that culminated in a slap to his cheek.

"Happy? Toby? Where are you guys going?" Paige asks, taking in the slumped figure of Toby, and a rather disgruntled Happy warily.

"Garage," Happy grunts. "Doc's had too much - look at him." It's unfortunate that he chooses to hiccup at that moment.

"I can see that," Paige agrees. Toby catches the sympathetic smile she offers Happy, as the latter slings her best friend's arm around her neck. "Need any help?"

Happy shakes her head, but Toby (in his defense, he was a little tipsy) blurts out, "It's okay, stay here and dance s'more with Walter."

Paige flushes pink - Toby thinks it might not be just due to the champagne - and turns a light fuchsia when Walter arrives at the scene. It's like watching a fairy light, his mind mumbles to him.

"What?" Walter asks pointedly when Paige stares at him with her mouth agape. Toby tries to stand to reiterate his point, but Happy jerks him back and he nearly tips over.

"Where are you going?" Walter asks with drawn eyebrows. Toby remembers wondering how a genius with an IQ of 197 can be so dense sometimes.

"Nothing much..." He slurs. "Happy and I are just going to bed."

In hindsight, it hadn't been the smartest choice of words. And true, it didn't help that he tagged on an off-hand commented that "It's so cold tonight." Either way, his drunk rambles earns him a sharp slap to his cheek, (and maybe the imprint of the carpet floor on his face, because he is told that Happy promptly abandoned her grip on him and let him sleep on the carpeted floor - until the party ended and he was dragged home.)

* * *

2.

It's on a drizzling Thursday morning that Toby works up the gut to approach Happy with a crumpled piece of paper in his hand. It's a math question, an inadvertently simple - and cheesy - one, given everyone's IQ (Even Cabe and Paige). But after so many wasted opportunities, when he could have told her how he felt but didn't, Toby's willing to try anything.

"Hey, Happy? I have this, uh, math question for you," Toby mumbles, feeling foolish as Happy abandons her wrench to stare at him.

"Why ask me? Sylvester's the Math genius." True, but the message in it wasn't for him.

"Just give it a shot, Happy. It's simple," Toby pleads, trying to employ the 'puppy eyes' technique in an attempt to convince her. It doesn't quite work, but Happy gives the piece of paper a begrudging glance anyway.

'9x - 7i 3(3x - 7u)'

"Are you kidding me?" She snaps, gripping her wrench and straightening up at an alarming pace. "I'm not the math whiz but even I could solve this question - when I was four!"

"Yea- Well," Toby stammers as he edges slightly away from her. "Just... Just give it a shot. Please, Happy?"

Happy glares, and for a while, Toby is sure that she is going to smack him with her wrench. But instead, she hurls it at the table and grabs the pencil from him.

"What. Do I have to do?" She asks, her teeth gritted in annoyance. Toby gulps again, though his heart finally ceases to beat at a dangerously fast pace.

"Make 'i' the subject. And er, do it step by step, if possible." He winces when Happy's jaw tenses again at the insult to her intelligence.

"You're hopeless," she mutters, as she starts to scribble down the solution to the question.

"9x - 7i 9x - 21u..." She mumbles. "So '-7i -21u- Is this slow enough for you, doc? He's practically drowning in her sarcasm, but the fact that he knows who's going to end up getting the last laugh softens the blow.

"So divide each side by -7," Happy explained with exaggerated slowness, and you get-"

'i 3 u'

Her eyes widen and her breath catches just a little, he can tell. Happy is flabbergasted for thirty seconds - Toby smirks - before she slugs him in the face.

His nose stings like hell, but he remembers the look on her face, and his eyes soften just a little as well.

They also tear up when Paige checks his nose for signs of injury, because Happy can punch harder than him and Sylvester put together and is the strongest person he knows.

* * *

3.

This is it. He's going to man up and text her.

That might sound contradictory, but Toby figures that if he confesses to Happy via the phone, she'll have more time to process his words, and not freak out and punch him straight away (again).

So he takes a deep breath, closes his eye, and wills his fingers to descend upon the keyboard - tapping instinctively at the familiar letters that he's already memorised by heart.

He hits the send button before opening his eyes...

'I love i'

... And immediately regrets it because there's a typo.

"Shit!" Toby frantically tries to switch his phone to airplane mood - but today, of all days, the connection is miraculously good, and the phone reads sent in seconds.

"Should have proofread it," he mumbles, dropping the device on the table and burying his head in his hands. It's only three words, and he's typed them out countless times (which explains the thirty-something message drafts kept in his phone). But today is that one time he screws up bad.

Toby hears footsteps and tries to ignore them. He is still drowning in mortification. But when the footsteps stop and something drops onto the table - mere inches away from his ear - he jolts awake in a hurry.

"Did you just send me a text to prove how narcissistic you are?"

It's Happy. It's Happy Quinn. It's Happy freakin' Quinn, standing in front of him, with her arms crossed. Toby sneaks a glance at her phone, which is lying next to him after she so callously dropped it on the table.

'I love i'

"Er, well," Is he supposed to come clean or smoke his way through this? "U and I were too close on the keyboard. Wait," he pauses when Happy's eyes widen just a fraction and she takes in a breath. "That sounded inappropriate-"

Happy slaps the side of his head to cut him off and pushes his hat down across his eyes. She grabs her phone, and storms off to her work table. But Toby could have sworn that - wishful thinking aside - her cheeks were a little brighter than normal, even if it was just a split second.

* * *

4.

It is nearing nine that night, and Toby is ready to wrap up his work and retire for the day (or night, really). So he grabs his trilby and coat and prepares to head out for dinner or something, because he has been cooped up in the garage for hours due to that heavy downpour and as much as he loves the place, he needs some fresh air.

He passes by Happy's table, mulling over whether he should ask her if she wants to go too. But Toby manages to dredge up the memory of Happy's death glare the last time he unintentionally interrupted her work. He's not exaggerating when he says she looked like she wanted to hurl her wrench at him (if not her wrench, then her screwdriver - which wouldn't hurt as bad but might seriously injure his eye). Which is why, taking safety precautions into account, he ends up inching slowly towards her desk.

"Ha-" Toby pauses when he sees Happy's head on the table. She's slouching in her seat and her arms are folded to act as a pillow. It takes a one more moment of blinking for Toby to decide that she's really asleep (Hey, she faked it before, okay? It caused him his favourite shoe. She accused him of being a pervert when he leaned down to check her breathing, and stomped so hard on his foot that his shoe sole detached itself).

She looks peaceful when she's asleep, stray pieces of dark hair framing her face as she breathes evenly. If it were like the movies, there should be rays of sunlight hitting her face - reflecting her innocence and purity. But it's not a movie; it's Happy Quinn. So instead of sunlight, moonbeams filter in, making her hair seem darker than it really is, making the lines of worry on her face a little more evident. Happy never looks peaceful when she sleeps. Sometimes, Toby wonders if he can change that.

"Take a picture. It lasts longer." She opens her eyes calmly and he nearly falls back.

"Well, picture isn't as stunning as you."

Toby is happy (Get it? Happy?) to say that he manages to move his foot out of the way in time. He ends up getting a kick to his shin, but he thinks it's better than losing another shoe.

* * *

5.

"Hey, Happy," Toby calls casually as he leans back on his seat. "Want to help me with my most recent project?"

"If that project involves keeping your mouth shut," she quips smoothly. "I'm in."

"Y'know, my lips would be sealed if you just k–"

"Forget it." Happy cuts him off in seconds. She's fast, Toby acknowledges. But she wouldn't know what hit her after this.

"All right, all right," Toby raises his hands up in mock surrender, and smirks. "Truth is, I was rearranging the alphabet so U and I would end up together." He raises his eyebrows and tilts his head at her.

"It's okay," Happy replies without missing a beat. "The letters N and O are already side by side." She leaves him with his jaw hanging open.

Toby's mouth only snaps shut when Sylvester lets out a loud chortle. Shooting a glare at his friend, Toby grumbles under his breath about Happy's inability to react properly to a pickup line. But he thinks it's because of this – her fire, her strength, her ferocity, _her_ – that makes him absolutely certain that he is irrevocably, deeply, and madly in love.

With Happy Quinn.


End file.
